LONDON: The 28-year-old first-time developer that built an in-game chat app for Pokémon Go says he is struggling to make ends meet because of the unexpected success of the app.
Pokémon Go, a smartphone game, which uses augmented reality to let players catch Pokémon from their phones in real-life locations, has been taking the world by storm.
Jonathan Zarra, who tested the game this summer, noticed that the app was missing an in-game chat feature and created GoChat to solve the problem.
GoChat, released on July 4 for Android and iOS, is an independent app that lets Pokémon Go players talk with each other by leaving notes at in-game locations.
If the app initially benefited from the attention Pokémon Go is getting around the world, it is now the victim of its own success.
Speaking to the Verge, Zarra said he had no intention to bring ads on GoChat, and was afraid that an attempt to monetise the unofficial app would draw unwanted attention from the Pokémon company.
But the free app, which was downloaded 10 000 times on its first day, has nearly 1 million users, while its servers are getting 600 requests per second and are struggling to keep up.
Meanwhile, Pokémon Go has already overtaken the dating app Tinder for its number of active users, and is on its way to overtaking Twitter.
As a result, GoChat frequently crashes and new users have been unable to register on Tuesday, pushing Zarra to hire a contractor to upgrade the back end-of the app.
Abdoelrhman Eaita, Zarra’s contractor, estimated that new servers, in order to keep GoChat up, would cost $4 000 (R57 000).
Zarra refused to comment on how much he has already spent on the GoChat app to date.
“I don’t want people to know how stupid I am,” he said.
He said he is in talks with investors to see how he can make the app profitable.
“I’m going to be able to pay my rent. First and foremost, we really need to get our servers back online.”
Nintendo shares surged 12.8 percent to 22 860 yen in Tokyo, on the news that the Pokémon Go app was expected to be released in Japan within the week.
The latest rise takes the company’s total gains to nearly 50 percent in the past three days, giving it a market value of about $31 billion.
The game has been available in the US, Australia and New Zealand since July 6.
It is not officially available in the UK yet, but players have been able to download the game by changing their phone settings.
Pokémon Go has already been praised by gamers for allowing them to use gender fluid avatars.
However, it has also raised privacy concerns after the app gave itself permission to read player’s Gmail and Google Drive accounts.
Security researcher Adam Reeve, who first pointed out the privacy problems, said that he thought it was unlikely the issues had happened because of maliciousness, but rather by accident.